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PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  DEATH. 


DISCOUESB 


DELIVERED    IN    THE 


PPtESBYTERIAN  CHUUCH  IN  CALDWELL,  N.  J., 


ON     THE     DAY    OF     NATIONAL     MOURNING, 


JUNX:    1st,    1865, 


BY   REV.    I.   N.    SPRAGUE,    Pastor. 


PUBLISHED      BY      REQUEST. 


NEWARK,    N.    J.: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  DAILY  ADVERTISER  OFFICE. 

1865. 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  DEATH. 


DISOOUESE 


DEIiIVEBED   IN    THE 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  CALDWELL,  N.  J., 


ON     THE    DAY    OF    NATIONAL     MOURNING, 


JUNE    1st,    1865, 

BY   REV.   I.  N.   SPRAGUE,   Pastor. 


PUBLISHED     BY     BEQUEST. 


NEWARK,    N.    J.: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  DAELY  ADVERTISER  OFFICE. 
1865. 


Messrs.  Nathamel  S.  Cbane,  Zenas  C.  Cbake,  L.  C.  Gboveb,  Esq.,  N.  0. 
Baldtvin,  Dr.  Pebsonet  and  others— 

I  am  unwilling  that  the  discourse,  requested  for  publication,  should  go  forth 
to  the  world,  without  saying  that  it  was  prepared  only  for  my  own  people. 
Such  as  it  is,  I  send  it  forth,  hoping  that  it  may  be  a  little  leaven  to  assist  in 
leavening  the  whole  lump. 

Tours,  &c., 

I.  N.  S. 


SERMON. 


Genesis  1 ,  7-11.  And  Joseph  went  up  to  bury  his  father ;  and  with  him 
went  up  all  the  servants  of  Pharaoh,  the  elders  of  his  house,  and  all  the  elders 
of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  aU  the  house  of  Joseph,  and  his  brethren,  and  his 
father's  house ;  only  their  little  ones,  and  their  flocks,  and  their  herds,  they 
left  in  the  land  of  Goshen.  And  there  went  up  with  him  both  chariots  and 
horsemen ;  and  it  was  a  very  great  company.  And  they  came  to  the  threshing 
floor  of  Atad,  which  is  beyond  Jordan ;  and  there  they  mourned  with  a  great 
and  very  sore  lamentation ;  and  he  made  a  mourning  for  his  father  seven  days. 
And  when  the  inhabitants  of  the  land,  the  Canaanites,  saw  the  mourning  in 
the  floor  of  Atad,  they  said.  This  is  a  grievous  mourning  to  the  Egyptians ; 
whereupon  the  name  of  it  was  called  Abel-mlzraim,  which  is  beyond  Jordan. 

That  was  a  grand  and  royal  funeral  procession,  which 
followed  the  good  old  patriarch  Joseph  to  his  burial.  In  that 
procession  there  were  the  chief  officers  of  Pharaoh's  throne, 
and  all  the  elders  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Patriarch  himself,  They  went  up  with  chariots 
and  horsemen,  a  very  great  company,  marching  onward  for 
hundreds  of  miles,  till  they  came  to  the  family  burying-place 
in  the  land  of  Canaan.  The  nations  of  the  land  saw  this 
grand  procession  as  it  passed  along ;  they  were  eye-witnesses 
of  the  great  and  very  sore  lamentations  for  the  dead,  and 
with  no  little  fellow-feeling  of  sympathy  they  said,  This  is  a 
very  grievous  mourning  to  the  Egyptians.  The  record  of  that 
menwrable  funeral  procession  will  be  read  as  long  as  the 
world  shall  last. 

Within  the  few  past  weeks  we  have  witnessed  just  such  an 
honorable  funeral  procession,  marching  through  the  land, 
attracting  universal  attention  j  and  calling  out  the  heartfelt 


sympathies  and  tlie  sincere  mourning  and  lamentation  of  mil- 
lions. When  Abraham  Lincoln  died  a  7iation  mourned. 
They,  mourned  not  simply  because  of  the  manner  of  his  death, 
but  because  of  the  fad  of  his  death.  All  felt  that  a  great  and 
a  good  man  had  fallen — great  in  his  very  goodness  and  by 
that  goodness,  having  won  his  way  to  the  confidence  and 
hearts  of  the  people,  as  one  raised  up  by  a  special  providence 
for  a  great  and  special  work.  No  man  since  the  days  of 
Washington  was  ever  so  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
as  Lincoln.  His  patient  and  noble  bearing,  his  kind,  con- 
cihating  spirit,  his  high  sense  of  justice,  his  true  patriotism 
and  unambitious  aims  were  coming  to  be  seen  and  known,  and 
they  were  commanding  a  high  resj^ect  from  the  manly  portion 
even  of  his  political  enemies.  When  the  fiendish  spirit  of 
rebellion  reached  him  in  the  form  of  assassination,  the  nation's 
heart  was  thrilled  with  horror.  We  hoped,  for  the  sake  of 
our  common  humanity,  that  the  blow  was  an  act  of  private 
vengeance ;  none  of  us  dreamed  that  it  could  have  been  de- 
liberately and  maturely  planned  by  men  in  authority,  who 
had  made  such  loud  boasts  of  high  and  noble  sentiments  and 
deeds  of  chivalry,  and  claiming  a  superior  manhood,  and  who 
had  set  themselves  up  as  the  pattern  people  of  the  world. 

Lincoln  died,  the  nation  mourned  over  him  and  carried 
him  to  his  burial.  It  was  a  long  journey  from  the  death 
scene  to  the  grave.  The  solemn  procession  passed  from  state 
to  state,  and  from  city  to  city,  and  wherever  it  passed,  by 
night  or  by  day,  tens  of  thousands  were  found  standing  by 
the  wayside,  to  do  honor  to  the  remains  of  the  distinguished 
dead,  by  such  emblems  of  sorrow  and  mourning,  as,  in  their 
profusion,  have  never  been  seen  at  the  funeral  of  any  one 
man  since  the  world  began.  Wherever  the  ark  of  the  dead 
rested  for  a  few  hours,  thousands  upon  thousands  crowded 
forward  to  gaze  a  moment  upon  the  countenance  of  the  mar- 
tyred President,  and  those  that  did  this  will  tell  it  to  their 
children  and  their  children's  children,  as  a  memorable  event 


in  their  history,  that  will  gather  interest  as  time  passes  on, 
Our  beloved,  our  honored,  our  martyred  President  now  sleeps 
in  the  family  burying-ground  of  his  former  home,  and  to  that 
honored  tomb  will  pilgrimages  be  made  by  a  loving,  grateful 
people,  as  they  have  long  been  made  to  the  tomb  of  Wash- 
ington. While  these  funeral  scenes  have  been  passing  among 
us,  the  nations  of  the  world  have  looked  on  and  said.  Truly 
this  loas  a  grievous  mourning^  ivhicJi  the  American  people  have 
7nade  for  Ahraham  Lincoln. 

It  is  too  soon  to  make  a  fair  and  honest  and  just  estimate 
ot  what  Lincoln  was  worth  to  us  and  the  world.  I  cast  my 
mind  forward  some  twenty -five  years,  when  the  dust  of  our 
national  strife  shall  all  be  blown  away;  when  old  political 
parties  and  prejudices  have  been  laid  aside  ;  when  the  present 
generation  shall  have  passed  off,  and  when  the  union  of  these 
states  shall  be  consolidated  as  it  never  has  been  ;  when  society 
is  settled  from  its  long  convulsions,  when  the  forms  of  indus- 
try are  running  smoothly  in  their  proper  channels,  and  when 
the  shadowing  wings  of  our  national  eagle  shall  afford  shelter 
and  protection  to  all  the  oppressed,  and  when  Grod's  crowning 
blessing  shall  bring  us  a  glorious  prosperity,  in  connection 
with  our  established  republican  institutions;  and  from  that 
point  of  time,  I  take  my  stand  and  look  back  and  ponder  and 
study  the  life  and  times  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  A  genera- 
tion hence,  who  will  there  be  that  will  not  do  him  honor  ? 
Who  that  will  not  then  see  that  he  was  a  chosen  vessel  of 
God,  chosen  out  of  the  people  to  live  and  labor  and  die  for  his 
country's  good,  and  that  his  life  and  labors  and  death  have 
all  been  made  subservient,  under  the  providence  of  God,  to 
the  very  best  good  of  his  country  and  the  world  ?  Twenty- 
five  years  hence,  and  probably  much  sooner,  all  the  sore 
spots  of  the  subjugated  South  will  be  healed  over,  slavery 
will  be  dead  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  resurrection,  aris- 
tocracy will  have  disappeared  under  the  necessity  of  a  personal 
application  to  business,  and    all  sectional  prejudices  will  be 


6 

swallowed  up  in  the  tide  of  a-  growing  prosperity,  and  a  gen- 
eral national  assimilation  character.  History  then  will  give 
a  truthful  and  impartial  view  of  the  war,  through  which  we 
have  just  passed,  of  its  causes,  of  its  progress,  and  of  the 
character  and  acts  of  the  men  who  liave  performed  distin- 
guished parts  in  it.  "What  then  Avill  history  record  of  our 
martyred  President  ? 

I  apprehend  that  in  these  future  years,  when  calm  and  can- 
did judgment  looks  over  men  and  events  and  results,  this  very 
President  will  be  the  man  whom  the  nation  will  delight  to 
honor — that  he  will  be  the  man  of  all  our  Presidents,  who 
will  stand  the  nearest  to  Washington  in  public  estimation,  if 
indeed  he  does  not  dim  the  glory  of  that  great  and  good  man. 
Washington  is  appropriately  styled  the  Father  of  his  country. 
It  was  under  the  leadership  of  his  wise,  patient  and  persever- 
ing efforts,  in  the  camp  and  the  field  and  the  council  chamber, 
in  times  that  tried  men's  souls,  that  we  came  successfully  out 
of  the  war  of  the  Eevolution,  and  were  able  to  take  our  stand 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  His  name  is  and  must  he 
embalmed  in  the  memories  of  the  American  people,  and  will 
always  ^be  a  dear  and  honored  and  precious  name.  Other 
honored  names  have  been  enrolled  in  the  list  of  our 
Presidents,  but  the  times  since  have  witnessed  very  little 
perilous  public  agitation.  When  Lincoln  was  brought  for- 
ward from  the  obscurity  of  his  quiet  private  life,  the  very 
nation  was  reeling  and  staggering,  as  under  the  blow  of  an 
assassin,  aimed  at  its  very  life.  His  progress  from  his  quiet 
home  to  the  seat  of  Government  was  beset  with  perils.  The 
nation  waited  in  breathless  attention  to  hear  what  were  his 
first  words,  when  he  should  speak  with  authority,  and  when 
he  did  speak,  there  was  a  freer  breathing,  because  there  was 
some  hope  of  still  preserving  the  life  of  the  government.  But 
it  was  a  Herculean  task  that  he  took  upon  his  shoulders. 
Who  of  us  then  felt  sure  that  there  was  any  man  living  that 
could  perform  successfully  what  he  undertook?      But  most 


successfully  has  he  performed  it.  Amid  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers, which  no  previous  occupant  of  the  Presidential  chair 
ever  encountered,  he  has  kept  firm  hold  of  the  helm  of  gov- 
ernment, and  he  was  not  called  away  till  he  had  brdught  the 
ship  of  state  to  a  safe  anchorage  and  placed  the  nation  in  a 
higher  and  safer  position  than  it  ever  occupied  before.  With 
the  last  gun  fired  at  Appomatox  Court  House,  that  position 
was  assumed,  and  Europe  and  the  world  saw  that  henceforth 
we  were  a  nation,  and  destined  to  be  no  mean  nation  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  How  quickly,  when  the  march  of 
triumph  commenced,  was  this  long  and  vexatious  war  brought 
to  an  end !  Truly  at  the  latter  end  a  short  work  has  the  Lord 
made  of  it.  The  country  is  saved,  the  government  is  estab- 
lished, and  republican  institutions  are  secure  for  this  genera- 
tion and  for  generations  to  come,  and  Abkaham  Lincoln  is 
at  least  our  second  Washington.  Thanks  be  unto  God,  that 
he  gave  us  such  a  man  and  that  man,  to  bring  us  safely  through 
the  perils  and  dangers  of  times  more  trying  than  the  times  of 
the  Eevolution,  that  gave  birth  to  our  national  existence. 

History  will  make  the  record  of  Lincoln,  that  he  was  a  good 
man  and  a  great  man  in  honest-hearted  goodness.  That  he  had 
great  native  energy  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  he  was  a  self- 
made  man.  He  was  one  from  the  great  mass  of  the  people. 
He  rose  by  labor,  by  study,  by  perseverance.  He  stood  out 
among  the  people,  a  sound,  honest,  solid  man,  and  when  the 
nation  wanted  such  a  man  to  hold  the  helm  of  State,  they 
selected  him.  They  were  not  disappointed  in  him.  He  was 
all  and  more  than  they  had  expected.  His  goodness  of  heart 
and  honesty  of  character  he  carried  with  him  into  his  public 
office. 

He  ivas  ivise  as  well  as  good.  He  looked  into  pubHc  affairs 
carefully.  He  weighed  them  long  and  well,  and  when  his 
decision  was  once  formed,  it  was  a  calm  and  deliberate  and 
well  settled  judgment.  Never  moving  with  the  rashness  of 
haste,  he  was  not  obliged  to  retrace  his  steps  and  do  his  work 


8 

over.  As  we  now  look  back  upon  his  work  and  see  how  well 
it  has  been  done,  we  shall  find  it  difficult  to  point  out,  in  any 
particular,  wherein  it  could  have  been  done  better. 

He  was  a  true  ^patriot.  Times  of  peril  and  agitation  in  pub- 
lic affairs  are  the  opportunities  which  are  seized  upon  by  un- 
principled and  ambitious  men  to  advance  their  own  interests, 
and  grasp  the  reins  of  power,  A  Napoleon  would  have  made 
the  effort  to  do  this,  in  the  circumstances  in  which  we  have 
been  placed.  There  were  men  who  prophesied  that  Washing- 
ton and  Jackson  and  Lincoln  would  make  this  effort,  but  they 
never  did.  They  were  all  honest  patriots,  ruling  not  for  them- 
selves, but  for  their  country,  not  seeking  their  own  interests, 
but  their  country's  good.  Such  true  loyalty  to  the  govern- 
ment and  the  nation  ranks  next,  in  virtuous  excellence,  in  my 
estmiation,  to  loyalty  to  God. 

Lincoln  ivill  he  regarded  in  history  as  the  true  father  of  Ameri- 
can Liberty.  Our  fathers  in  the  great  Revolution  were  wise 
and  good  men ;  under  the  circumstances  they  did  the  very  best 
they  could  in  laying  the  foundations  and  erecting  the  pillars 
of  our  national  government,  on  the  principles  set  forth  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  They  planted  the  Tree  of 
Liberty  and  its  roots  struck  deep  down  into  the  soil,  and  its 
trunk  rose  in  majesty  and  beauty,  attracting  the  attention  of 
the  nations.  But  alas,  they  left  standing  by  it  the  tree  of 
slavery,  then  a  little  stunted,  scraggy  shrub,  which  they  verily 
thought  would  wither  and  die  of  itself,  supposing  it  could  not 
live  in  such  a  soil  as  ours.  But  weeds  will  grow  in  the  ac- 
cursed soil  of  this  earth  in  spite  of  human  culture  to  keep 
them  down.  The  good  tree  grew  and  flourished  and  spread 
abroad  its  branches,  and  the  oppressed  of  the  nations  took 
shelter  under  it.  But  the  bad  tree  grew  also ;  it  struck  its 
roots  deep  down  to  get  nourishment  and  strength ;  it  reared 
up  a  tall  and  fearless  head ;  it  stretched  forth  its  strong  arms, 
and  grasped  the  tree  of  liberty  and  threatened  to  crush  out  its 
very  life.     The  God  of  nations  looked  on.     The  time  of  retri- 


9 

biition  for  national  sin  had  fully  come ;  and  God  determined 
to  wipe  out  together  the  sin  and  the  stain  of  our  nation,  and 
for  our  punishment  and  as  a  lesson  of  warning  to  the  world, 
this  wiping  out  must  be  in  blood.  As  the  strife  waged  on- 
ward, it  was  not  in  the  heart  of  our  Chief  Magistrate  to  lay 
the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  evil  tree,  only  as  a  matter  of  neces- 
sity to  preserve  the  national  life.  God  brought  about  this 
necessity.  Our  President  saw  it,  even  before  the  people  saw 
it.  Having  calmly  waited  the  fulness  of  time,  he  then  acted 
with  firmness  and  decision,  saying,  hew  down  the  evil  tree, 
and  its  branches,  and  leave  not  a  stump  or  a  root.  By  that 
one  act,  a  race  of  nearly  four  millions  took  their  places,  for 
the  first  time,  under  the  shelter  of  the  tree  of  liberty,  coming 
out  from  a  state  of  bondage  to  the  ownership  of  themselves, 
their  wives  and  their  children.  The  black  people  of  America 
will  never  forget  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  will  be 
told  to  their  children  and  their  childrens'  children,  and  their 
little  ones  will  be  taught  to  lisp  it,  as  the  one  name,  the  dearest 
and  most  significant  to  them  of  all  earthly  names.  Our  hon- 
ored President  went  down  to  his  grave  with  the  precious  bless- 
ings of  millions  of  the  poor  resting  on  his  head.  •  Can  we  not 
feel  that  our  Savior  has  already  said  to  him.  Inasmuch  as  ye 
have  done  it  unto  the  least  of  these  my  brethreUj  ye  have  doTie  it 
unto  me. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was,  in  the  judgment  of  charity,  a  true 
believer  in  Christ.  He  was  the  only  one  of  all  our  Presidents, 
that  entered  upon  his  official  life,  asking  publicly  the  prayers 
of  the  people.  He  was  known  to  be  a  man  of  praying  habits, 
and  to  be  governed  by  Christian  principles,  and  to  fill  his  place 
in  the  house  of  God  on  the  Sabbath.  When  personally  ad- 
dressed by  way  of  friendly  enquiry,  he  promptly  answered 
that  he  did  love  Jesus.  What  tremendous  influences  were  bear- 
ing on  him  daily  to  make  him  realize  the  great  truths  of  re- 
ligion, and  to  drive  him  to  find  refuge  and  help  in  God !  He 
knew  that  he  was  surrounded  by  constant  perils ;  he  was 

2 


10 

warned  that  evil  men  were  lurking  for  his  life ;  his  immense 
responsibilities,  connected  with  a  sense  of  religion,  would  lead 
him  to  look  upward,  as  he  did,  for  wisdom  and  direction. 

As  a  fitting,  crowning  act  to  all  his  previous  life,  he  was  laid 
as  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  his  country.  It  is  and  should  be 
to  us,  a  humiliating  fact,  that  we,  as  a  nation,  had  committed 
sins  so  great  and  grievous,  that  God  felt  it  necessary  to  chas- 
tise us  with  sore  afflictions  and  heavy  judgments.  "We  had 
become  proud  and  vain  and  boastful  and  worldly  and  oppres- 
sive, and  we  were  the  more  wicked,  because  we  endeavored  to 
justify  ourselves  in  our  evil  course,  by  Bible  precepts  and  ex- 
amples. Shall  I  not  visit  for  these  things,  saith  the  Lord?  and 
the  Lord  did  visit  for  them.  Wars  have  been  among  the 
prominent  things,  which  the  Lord  has  used,  through  all  the 
world's  history,  as  a  rod  of  chastisement  for  national  and  gen- 
eral sins ;  and  it  is  a  principle  of  Divine  Providence  that  wars 
are  made  to  uproot  and  destroy  the  very  sins  for  which  a 
nation  is  punished,  or,  if  the  sin  is  not  repented  of  and  given 
up,  then  the  nation  itself  is  destroyed,  and  another  people  is 
raised  up  to  come  in  and  take  their  place,  National  sins  are 
held  with  great  tenacity.  They  become  woven  into  the  social 
habits  and  customs  of  the  people  so  that  evil  is  called  good  and 
good  evil.  To  root  out  such  sins  and  make  a  people  see  that 
they  are  sins,  and  be  willing  to  abandon  them,  God  smites 
with  blow  upon  blow.  To  accomplish  the  Divine  purposes  of 
this  war,  it  could  not  be  short,  as  we  hoped  it  would  be.  It 
had  to  be  lengthened  out,  till  we  could  see  and  feel  what  God 
meant  by  it.  Nor  could  these  purposes  be  accomplished  at 
little  cost  to  our  worldly  interests.  God  meant  to  make  it  so 
costly  that  we  should  feel  it  in  our  purses  and  our  family 
circles.  Millions,  that  a  man  could  not  count  in  his  life-time, 
have  been  expended,  leaving  a  heavy  burden  of  debt,  that  we 
and  our  children  and  our  childrens'  children  must  work  out. 
Rivers  of  blood  have  been  shed — scores  of  thousands  of  lives, 
scores  upon  scores  have  been  sacrificed.    The  young  men,  the 


11 

flower  of  the  country,  have  fallen,  the  land  is  filled  with 
widows  and  orphans.  The  blow  has  fallen  upon  all  parts  of 
the  laud,  but  heaviest  where  there  was  the  deepest  guilt. 
Upon  this  altar  of  sacrifice,  as  it  were  to  make  atonement  for 
national  sins,  many  distinguished  victims  have  been  laid,  of 
the  choicest  and  best  in  the  land,  just  such  victims,  as  God 
required  in  olden  times  in  acts  of  punishment  and  worship. 
But  the  measure  of  atonement  was  not  complete,  till  there  was 
laid  on  that  altar  a  victim  greater  and  better  and  more  distin- 
guished than  all  others.  As  the  sacrifices  of  olden  times  ended 
by  the  offering  up  of  Jesus  upon  the  cross  to  complete  and 
finish  and  perfect  God's  great  work  of  redemption,  so  God  has 
brought  our  national  sacrifices  to  an  end,  by  demanding  a  last 
and  best  victim,  in  the  most  honored  and  best  beloved  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  land.  It  is  our  earnest  prayer  that  this  may 
suffice,  and  that  God  now  will  turn  away  His  anger  from  us^ 
and  give  us  once  more  the  blessings  of  peace  and  love. 

The  more  I  ponder  upon  it,  the  more  I  think  that  this  last, 
greatest  sacrifice,  which  has  made  all  the  nation  weep  and 
mourn,  laas  needful  to  carry  out  God's  plan  of  mercy  toward 
us ; — that  on  the  whole,  it  was  a  fitting,  crowning  act  to  wind 
up  the  tragedy  of  war,  and  introduce  the  blessings  of  peace ; — 
that  if  Lincoln  himself  could  have  known  what  would  be 
the  great  good  arising  out  of  his  death  in  the  time  and  manner 
of  it,  he  would  have  said,  out  of  the  fulness  of  his  benevolence 
and  patriotism,  let  ine  he  Ixiid  as  a  victim  upon  the  altar ;  let  my 
life  be  offered  up  for  the  benefit  of  the  nation. 

I  would  not  presume  to  put  any  human  being  on  a  level 
with  our  blessed  Eedeemer  in  any  sense,  for  He  is  higher  and 
holier  and  greater  and  better  than  any  or  all  created  things, 
yet  I  must  say,  that  the  more  I  think  of  it,  the  more  I  can 
see  a  striking  analogy  between  the  death  of  Christ  for  the 
world  and  the  death  of  Lincoln  for  his  country,  in  this,  that  as 
the  death  of  Christ  resulted  in  great  good  to  the  world,  so  the 
death  of  Lincoln  will  result  in  great  good  to  the  nation.    Both 


12 

were  put  to  death  by  wicked  men  from  wicked  motives,  and 
botli  events  are  over-ruled,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  accom- 
plish objects  the  very  opposite  from  what  were  intended  by 
their  perpetrators.  Evil  men  dig  a  pit  for  their  neighbors,  and 
fall  into  it  themselves. 

The  national  good  accomplished  by  the  death  of  Lincoln, 
is  already  beginning  to  appear,  and  I  apprehend  it  has  only 
just  begun  to  work. 

It  has  toned  down  and  softened  the  bitter  feeling  of  the  South 

towards  the  North  and  towards  the  government.     This  influence 

is  already  seen  and  felt.     The  Southern  people  were  bitter, 

and  they  were  ready  for  almost  any  thing,  lawful  or  unlawful, 

to  accomplish  their  ends,  but  they  were  not  so  far  gone  in  the 

scale  of   depravity,  as  to  lose  all  sense  of  humanity.     The 

assassination  of  Lincoln,  and  by  the  hired  tool  of  their  own 

authorities,  touched  them  in  their  vulnerable  spot.    It  thrilled 

them  with  a  sense  of  horror  and  indignation,  as  no  other  event 

could  have  done.     If  out*  President  had  been  captured  or  slain 

in  honorable  warfare,  they  would  have  rejoiced,  for  it  would 

have  worked  to  their  advantage ;  but  to  have  him  murdered 

as  he  was  murdered,  and  especially  with  the  virtual  complicity 

of  the  whole  chivalrous  South  in  that  murder,  was  too  much. 

It  softened  instead  of  hardening  them.     It  touched  to  the 

quick  all  that  was  human  in  them.     Their  better  feelings  and 

their  strong  sympathies  leaped  to  the  surface  at  once.     The 

South  is  softened.     Its  bitterness  is  passing  away,  and  with 

the  exception  of  some  of  the  leading  spirits  in  rebellion,  it 

will  all  pass  away  in  time ;  and  with  slavery  removed,  which 

has  been  the  sole  origin  of  all  sectional  feeling,  the  Union  will 

be  bound  together  in  closer  bonds  than  ever.     These  leading 

spirits  I  have  no  desire  to  conciliate.     They  have  sown  the 

wind,  let  them  reap  the  whirlwind.     They  are  subjugated  as 

they  ought  to  be ;  for  the  good  of  the  country  in  all  future 

time  let  them  stay  so,  without  an  effort  to  raise  them  from  the 

depth  into  which  they  have  fallen. 


13 

The  death  of  Lincoln  has  brought  out  to  the  light  and  to  the 
execration  of  the  civilized  world,  the  true  spirit  and  character  of 
the  rebellion.  When  the  news  first  reached  us  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  shot,  all  felt  and  said  that  it  was  an  act  of  private 
hate  or  revenge  on  the  part  of  some  rebel  desperado.  It  was 
an  act  so  mean  and  base,  so  contrary  to  all  the  laws  of  civilized 
warfare,  that  no  one  thought  of  charging  it  upon  any  but  the 
perpetrator  himself.  But  as  the  deed  began  to  unfold  itself, 
it  exposed  to  our  view  the  coils  of  a  deadly  serpent,  which  had 
been  lying  concealed,  watching  the  opportunity  and  gathering 
strength  to  give  one  mighty  spring  and  throttle  out  the  very 
life  of  the  government.  No  one  intervention  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence in  our  behalf  was  ever  more  manifest,  than  that  which 
defeated  this  gigantic  rebel  plot  of  wholesale  assassination.  If 
it  had  not  been  that  the  Lord  was  on  our  side,  the  government 
and  nation  would  have  been  swallowed  up  quick.  The  key 
to  that  plot  was  the  key  to  the  whole  Pandora's  box  of  Con- 
federate depravity.  The  mystery  of  iniquity  now  stands  out 
to  our  view  in  its  true  character.  The  proof  is  clear  before 
the  world,  that  the  rebellion  embodied  in  itself  the  most  con- 
summate and  deliberate  schemes  of  wickedness,  so  deeply  dyed 
in  Satanic  cunning  and  depravity,  that  the  actors  must  have 
had  special  and  unusual  help  from  the  council  chamber  of 
Pandemonium.  The  deliberate  shooting  down  and  starvation 
of  our  prisoners,  the  plot  to  steal  in  and  burn  our  Northern 
cities  and  shipping,  the  plot  to  desolate  the  cities  and  the  coun- 
try by  spreading  widely  the  yellow  fever  and  small  pox,  and 
by  a  special  messenger,  to  introduce  these  foul  diseases  to  the 
Presidential  mansion,  and  the  plot  to  assassinate  the  heads  of 
government,  were  all  in  keeping  with  each  other,  and  with  the 
character  of  the  rebellion.  No  wonder  that  men,  who  could 
plot  such  schemes  of  deliberate  wickedness,  could  introduce 
into  their  Congress  a  bill,  declaring  that  they  were  justified 
"  in  putting  prisoners  to  death  without  special  cause,  that  they 
had  a  right  to  use  poisoned  weapons  and  to  assassinate.      After 


14 

this  let  no  man  s|)eak  of  Southern  chivalry  as  a  high-toned 
manhood,  and  only  with  the  utmost  contempt  for  its  meanness 
and  depravity.  It  is  a  fitting  end  to  such  a  chivalry,  that  it 
should  be  taken  in  the  last  ditch,  disguised  in  and  even  dis- 
gracing the  garments  of  an  old  woman.  The  great  rebellion, 
its  principles  and  its  actors  now  stand  before  the  world  in  their 
true  light.  In  all  future  time,  it  will  be  regarded  as  it  should 
be,  as  having  bfeen  begun  without  reason,  as  being  carried  on 
on  principles  outraging  all  humanity,  and  as  having  come  to 
an  end  well  befitting  its  principles  and  its  aims. 

The  death  of  Lincoln,  together  with  other  developments  of 
the  true  character  and  spirit  of  the  rebellion,  is  directly  calcu- 
lated to  extinguish  all  Northern  sympathy  for  the  South  and  its 
cause.  The  South  counted  on  that  sympathy,  and  they  have 
had  so  much  of  it  as  seriously  to  embarrass  the  government. 
In  all  the  Northern  States,  the  South  has  had  apologists  and 
defenders,  who  have  claimed  to  act  in  good  faith  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  truth  and  good  morals.  But  after  the  develop- 
ments that  have  been  made,  who  can  utter  one  word  of  apology 
for  the  South  now,  or  who  desires  to  do  it,  that  wishes  to  retain 
his  own  feelings  of  self-respect,  or  any  respect  for  his  manhood 
from  his  fellow-men.  I  can  sympathize  with  a  man,  who  has 
committed  even  a  great  crime,  if  I  can  see  that  he  has  been 
deceived  and  misled,  and  acted  conscientiously,  though  under 
a  mistake ;  but  when  I  see  that  he  has  acted  with  deliberation, 
and  knowledge  and  evil  purpose ;  acted  with  savage  barbarity, 
with  malice  and  murder  in  his  heart,  showing  what  his  heart 
is  by  making  a  drinking  cup  out  of  the  skull  of  his  slain 
enemy,  deliberately  starving  and  shooting  down  the  helpless 
*  within  his  power,  purposely  spreading  malignant  and  fatal 
disease,  firing  cities  at  midnight  filled  with  a  slumbering  popu- 
tion,  and  using  the  assassin's  weapon  against  the  good  and  the 
great,  then  my  sympathy  is  at  an  end.  I  could  have  no  sym- 
pathy for  such  a  man,  if  he  had  been  my  best  friend ;  much 
less  could  I  sympathize  with   the  cause  and  the  principles, 


15 

whicli  have  made  him  the  wretch  that  he  is,  without  making 
myself  a  partaker  of  liis  crime. 

During  the  war  party  spirit  has  run  high.  Men.  have  gone 
to  extremes.  Things  have  been  said  and  done,  which,  I  think, 
will  never  be  said  and  done  again,  at  least  in  our  day.  I  look 
now  for  the  intensity  of  party  spirit  to  be  abated.  Washing- 
ton warned  us  against  that  spirit  as  one  of  the  chief  dangers 
of  our  land,  and  never  did  we  need  to  take  note  of  that  warn- 
ing more  than  at  the  present  day.  Carried  to  the  extreme  t  hat 
spirit  leads  to  division,  to  rebellion,  to  public  murder  and  pri- 
vate assassination. 

The  death  of  Lincoln,  and  its  accompanying  developments, 
will  make  it  easier  for  the  Union  to  he  reconstructed.  We  always 
trouble  ourselves  needlessly,  when  we  strive  to  solve  knotty 
questions  before  the  proper  time.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is 
the  evil  thereof  We  have  been  anxious  to  know  what  could 
be  done  with  the  negroes  if  they  were  freed  ?  How  could  the 
South  ever  be  conciliated,  if  it  was  subjugated  ?  How  could 
the  Union  of  the  States  be  reconstructed  so  as  to  give  us  the 
promise  of  lasting  peace  and  harmony  ?  Divine  Providence 
is  just  beginning  to  give  us  a  plain  and  manifest  solution  to 
these  enquiries.  It  is  God's  province  to  solve  these  questions, 
and  he  has  let  the  war  continue  just  long  enough  and  to  come 
to  an  end  in  just  such  a  manner  as  to  give  them  an  easy  solu- 
tion. The  South  wants  all  the  emancipated  slaves  as  laborers, 
and  they  will  be  more  profitable  to  the  South  and  the  whole 
country  as  free,  than  they  have  ever  been  as  slaves.  The 
question  will  naturally  arise  in  time,  whether  they  shall  have 
the  privilege  of  the  ballot  box,  and  that  question,  in  its  proper 
time,  will  find  its  own  solution.  Three-fifths  of  them  have 
always  voted,  not  in  person,  but  virtually  in  their  masters,  and 
their  votes  have  always  been  cast  in  the  interests  of  the  aris- 
tocracy and  for  their  own  perpetual  slavery.  When  they 
come  to  vote  in  person,  they  will  vote  in  one  solid  mass  for 
freedom  and  republican  institutions.     And  it  is  prophesied  by 


16 

able  men  that  the  time  will  come  when  their  vote  will  be 
needed,  to  counteract  the  foreign  and  Popish  influence,  that  is 
gaining  such  a  strong  foothold  in  our  country.  It  is  conjec- 
tured that  our  next  internal  national  struggle  ij^ill  be  with  this 
foreign  Popish  influence. 

As  to  conciliating  the  South,  they  are  conciliated.  The 
masses  of  the  South  are  more  quiet  and  peaceable  and  better 
satisfied  to-day  under  the  national  government,  than  they 
were  under  their  sectional  government,  and  they  have  now 
more  freedom  of  opinion  and  of  speech  than  they  had  before 
the  war.  During  the  last  two  years  two-thirds  of  their  own 
army  were  deserters.  They  had  lost  faith  and  heart  in  their 
own  cause  and  in  their  rulers.  They  had  learned  that  the 
Northern  armies  were  not  Goths  and  Vandals.  The  work  of 
conciliation  has  progressed  beyond  all  expectation,  and  it  will 
go  on,  and  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  conciliation  in 
the  masses  will  be  complete. 

As  to  the  rabid,  fire-eating  secessionists,  the  fomentors  and 
leaders  in  the  rebellion,  it  is  neither  necessary  or  policy  for  the 
government  to  turn  aside  an  inch  from  the  even  tenor  of  its 
way  to  conciliate  them.  They  are  conquered,  subjugated ; 
they  obliged  us  to  put  them  in  that  position ;  let  them  stay 
there ;  let  them  feel  that  the  strong  arm  of  government  is 
over  them.  Give  them  to  understand  that  the  government 
can  go  on  and  be  maintained  without  them  and  in  spite  of 
them.  Let  the  pardoning  power  be  exercised  as  extensively 
as  may  be  safe  and  best  for  the  country,  and  if  these  rabid 
men  submit  and  behave  themselves,  let  them  have  privileges  ; 
and  if  not  let  them  be  dealt  with  according  to  their  deserts 
like  other  criminals. 

That  public  justice,  the  good  of  the  country  and  the  safety 
of  the  government  will  demand  that  punishment  be  inflicted 
in  the  case  of  some  prominent  leading  men,  to  its  full  extent^ 
will,  I  think,  be  the  general  sentiment  of  the  nation.  I  hold 
strongly  to  the  constitution.    I  would  give  every  man  his 


17 

rights  under  the  constitution,  till  he  forfeits  those  rights  by  his 
own  act.  The  loyal  man  I  would  protect  in  all  his  interests, 
according  to  the  constitution.  The  man  guilty  of  treason  has 
lost  his  rights ;  he  has  no  rights  at  all,  except  the  right  to  a 
fair  trial  and  a  proper  punishment  for  his  crime.  The  consti- 
tution makes  treason  a  capital  offence.  It  describes  that  offence 
to  be  levying  war  against  the  government,  and  it  fixes  the 
punishment  to  be  death.  Let  the  constitution  be  maintained 
and  carried  out.  The  leaders  and  prominent  actors  in  the  re- 
bellion, I  would  arraign  before  the  proper  tribunals.  I  would 
give  them  a  fair  and  impartial  trial,  and  if  they  are  found 
guilty,  I  would  inflict  just  the  punishment  which  the  constitu- 
tion demands.  I  would  do  this  to  show  that  our  constitution 
is  not  a  dead  ■  letter,  to  make  the  strong  impression  on  every 
mind  in  the  nation  that  treason  is  a  crime — a  crime  that  cannot, 
that  miist  not  be  compromised ; — to  be  an  example  of  warning, 
that  all  the  Jeff  Davises  of  future  generations  might  see  what 
would  be  their  sure  end.  When  John  Brown  levied  war 
against  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  when  he  was  tried  and  sen- 
tenced and  hung,  the  voice  of  the  country  said  it  was  right, 
though  there  was  a  general  feeling  that  he  was  at  least  a 
monomaniac.  It  would  take  the  guilt  of  ten  thousand  John 
Biowns  to  equal  the  criminality  of  a  Davis  or  Lee,  or  Beaure- 
gard, or  Benjamin  or  Breckenridge.  There  is  an  old  Latin 
proverb,  Fiat  justitia,  mat  ccelum,  "  let  justice  be  done  though 
the  heavens  fall." 

Before  the  death  of  our  martyr  President,  there  was  a  gene- 
ral feeling  and  quite  pervading,  to  pass  too  slightly  over  this 
great  crime  of  the  rebellion — to  make  very  easy  terms  with 
all  in  high  and  low  standing,  on  the  simple  condition  of  their 
ceasing  to  fight.  I  thought  I  could  see  danger  in  that  feeling, 
and  I  thought  I  could  see  a  Divine  Providence  in  the  sudden 
and  awful  death  of  our  President,  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 
nation  to  a  sense  of  justice  and  safety,  and  bring  it  to  a  better 
feeling.    It  seemed  to  need  just  that  act  to  thrill  through  the 

3 


18 

national  heart  and  nerve  that  heart  up  to  be  willing  to  give 
crime  its  just  and  proper  desert.  We  are  not  a  vindictive 
people.  I  would  hang  no  man  for  revenge,  but  I  would  do  it 
as  a  terror  to  evil  doers  and  for  the  future  safety  of  the 
country. 

That  terrible  act  of  assassination,  by  which  our  enemies 
thought  to  destroy  our  government,  has  made  that  government 
strong — stronger  than  it  ever  was.  The  wheels  of  govern- 
mental power  were  not  clogged  a  moment,  and  as  they  moved 
on,  they  moved  on  with  more  majesty  and  with  a  stronger 
support  than  before.  That  act  of  assassination  decided  the 
policy  of  reconstruction ;  that  no  Confederate  act  or  officer  in 
any  State  would  be  acknowledged.  It  blotted  out  the  last  four 
years  of  Southern  legislation,  and  put  in  force  all  the  old  laws 
and  courts,  which  Confederate  authority  had  displaced.  It 
gave  security  to  the  country,  that  the  reconstruction  of  our 
national  union  would  be  right,  and  that  the  union  would  be 
stronger  than  it  had  ever  been.  Thanks  be  unto  God  for 
giving  us  such  a  President  as  Lincoln  for  the  last  four 
years,  and  for  giving  us  such  a  President  as  Johnson  for  the 
four  years  to  come.  The  one  has  gone  to  his  grave,  enshrined 
in  the  loving  hearts  of  a  great  people  and  with  the  universal 
respect  of  all  foreign  nations  for  his  goodness  and  wisdom ; 
and  the  other,  I  trust,  will  administer  government,  wisely  tem- 
pering judgment  with  mercy,  and  receiving  a  cordial  support 
from  all  the  loyal  classes  of  the  community. 

The  war,  the  great  war  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is  over. 
Peace  once  more  spreads  her  balmy  wings  over  the  land.  The 
country  breathes  freely.  The  armies  are  disbanding,  and  the 
men  who  have  fought  our  battles  and  won  our  victories  and 
saved  our  government,  are  coming  to  their  homes  to  resume 
the  peaceful  pursuits  of  industry.  Agitation  is  over,  party 
strife  is  abating,  the  government  works  freely,  and  there  is  a 
grand  prospect  before  us  of  a  more  glorious  union  and  a  more 
extended  and  influential  prosperity  than  we  have  ever  seen. 


19 

From  this  time  onward,  true  democracy  in  governments  will 
demand  the  attention  of  the  world.  For  one,  I  rejoice  in 
these  grand  results  with  unspeakable  joy.  I  have  lived  to  see 
the  end  of  the  great  rebellion.  I  have  lived  to  see  the  grand- 
est triumph  of  law  and  order  and  government  that  the  world 
ever  saw ;  and  with  me  it  is  a  matter  of  profound  satisfaction 
that,  personally,  I  have  contributed  what  I  could  to  bring 
about  this  grand  result.  I  have  seen  it  stated  that  the  re- 
bellion could  never  have  got  a  standing,  without  the  aid  of  the 
Southern  ministers  of  religion.  By  their  countenance  and 
support  they  contributed  just  that  moral  influence  that  gave  it 
that  standing.  We  know  too  that  the  ministers  of  religion 
exerted  no  small  influence  in  the  great  Eevolution  to  bring 
about  the  fact  of  our  national  existence,  by  lifting  up  their 
voices  loudly  in  favor  of  liberty  and  independence.  Our  very 
town  bears  the  honored  name  of  a  martyred  chaplain,  who, 
for  his  bold  and  unflinching  championship  of  our  colonial 
rights,  was  the  special  object  of  British  hate,  and  there  is  every 
evidence  that  he  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  hired  by 
British  gold.  I  am  happy  to  know  also,  that  in  the  struggle 
for  national  life,,  which  has  just  drawn  to  a  successful  close, 
the  ministers  of  religion  at  the  North  have  come  forward 
manfully  and  thrown  the  whole  weight  of  their  influence  in 
favor  of  that  cause,  which  God  has  now  vindicated  and  pro- 
claimed to  the  world  as  the  right ;  and  I  am  happy  to  feel  to- 
day, that  I  am  permitted  to  reckon  myself  amotig  the  number 
who  have  done  this.  I  have  aimed  to  give  the  government  in 
its  hour  of  peril  my  warm  and  hearty  support.  I  have  felt 
for  it,  in  private  and  in  public ;  I  have  preached  for  it ;  I  have 
acted  for  it.  If  I  had  been  younger  and  in  full  health,  I 
should  have  performed  for  it  a  ministry  in  the  tented  field.  I 
have  done  what  I  could.  I  am  unspeakably  glad  that  I  have 
not  been  silent.  God  and  my  own  conscience  would  not  let 
me  be  silent.  I  should  have  felt  that,  under  flie  circumstances, 
silence  was  akin  to  treason.     What  little  I  could  do  I  have 


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done  to  encourage  the  soldier  or  comfort  bis  wife  and  family 
at  home,  to  strengthen  the  government,  by  advocating  for  it  a 
strong  and  loyal  support,  and  I  have  done  this  with  my  whole 
heart.  And  now  when  I  look  abroad  and  see  the  country  in 
peace  and  growing  harmony,  with  all  its  old  grievances.  North 
and  South,  vanishing  away,  with  the  glowing  prospects  before 
us  of  a  well  grounded  peace  and  prosperity,  I  am  full  of 
gladness  and  joy  and  thanksgiving  to  our  Heavenly  Father, 
who  hath  wrought  for  us  this  great  salvation. 


Date  Due 


